Mobile Content Marketing: Too Big to Ignore

You probably would have noticed how more and more people are using smartphones to a far greater extent than laptops or PCs. A great deal of internet browsing and other activities have been taken over by mobile phones. With this, something called mobile content marketing has emerged in recent times.

What is Mobile Content Marketing?

You are already aware of what content marketing means. But just to brush up your knowledge, it is worth a mention that content marketing refers to the creation of useful and relevant content to attract the attention of readers. Mobile marketing, on the other hand, refers to the marketing of this generated content to users of mobile phones.

From this, we arrive at mobile content marketing, which as you have probably guessed by now, means the creation of content that is mobile-optimized in order to attract and engage existing and potential customers.

Too Big to Ignore

Now that you have a fair idea of mobile content marketing, we come to the real issue – Why is mobile content marketing too big to ignore?

Here are some statistics that should probably help you get an answer to that.

30% of all web traffic in 2012 is accounted for by mobile web browsing as noted by Nucleus Research via SourceCon.

The number of mobile devices, by the year 2016, is expected to surpass the population of the world, an 18-fold increase between the years 2011 and 2016, as given by Cisco.

Cisco also observed that in August 2012, mobile devices accounted for more than 13% of all web traffic.

Based on the data given by comScore 2013, the top five media properties accessed on mobile devices are Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, and Wikipedia.

As is obvious, mobile content marketing is becoming more and more important, and hence, difficult to ignore with the increasing use of mobile devices for web browsing.

On April 21, 2015, Google announced a new mobile-specific ranking algorithm which was collectively nicknamed as ‘Mobilegeddon’ by marketers, SEO specialists and web developers. This algorithm basically decides the ranking of the mobile-friendly pages at the top of the search engine results. Websites that passed this algorithm improved their rankings on the search engine, while the ones that were not able to pass the algorithm had lowered rankings.

How to Improve Mobile Content Marketing

Now that you know how important the idea of mobile content marketing is, you might be thinking about what you can possibly do improve it and what would be the best practices when it comes to mobile content marketing. First of all, you will need to implement mobile content marketing which primarily involves these three basic steps.

Development of a separate mobile version of your website.

Use of a responsive website design.

Creation of a mobile app for your website.

In addition to the implementation of mobile content marketing, you will also want to improve on your website ranking. So here are some useful things that you should be aware of in order to improve the rankings of your mobile-friendly website.

Getting the design to fit the context of a mobile phone, such as with the use of bold colors and minimal text, is a good way to start mobile content marketing.

Easy navigation that will allow users to customize their experience on your website is another important factor to keep in mind.

Focusing on essentials and calls for action makes it far easier for the user to end up ordering the product or availing the service in case of websites that provide services.

Bold visuals, suitable fonts, and videos can add to an improved website ranking in mobile-friendly terms.

Let us also consider what the experts have to say. Neil Patel, the co-founder of a number of analytics companies, such as Crazy Egg, Quicksprout, and KISSmetrics, gives a 6-step guide for writing content for mobile users. The importance of mobile content creation, therefore, must be realized by modern age marketers.

Talking of the emphasis on good mobile content, it is worth mentioning here what Jolie Miller, in April 2017, said regarding the importance of content – “What I love about content is it has the power to change people’s lives for a second or for a day or forever. Great content creates space for people to pause and reflect, and that space is where transformation happens.”

The whole idea of good content marketing for mobile users can be perhaps best summed up by Stephanie Leffler, CEO, and Co-founder of Crowdsource, who says, “More and more people are consuming information on their smartphones. Write as if they will be reading on their phones, and add attention-grabbing photos that will stand out. Create content in bite-sized pieces that can be stitched together to form longer-form articles — or be kept separate to serve mobile users.”

The Pros of Mobile Content Marketing

As the whole process of mobile content marketing continues to gain momentum in today’s digital world, the major advantages associated with it are listed as follows.

As mentioned before, mobile phones have become and continue to grow as major traffic drivers at an accelerated pace.

The use of mobile search makes online and offline follow-ups quicker and easier.

The process of decision has been simplified through mobile searches.

Last, but not the least, mobile search drives offline actions as well multi-channel conversions.

The Cons of Mobile Content Marketing

Despite the importance of mobile content marketing and its many pros that have been mentioned throughout, it turns out that mobile content marketing also seems to have some cons. Let us take a look at them here.

The design and style are often tailored to fit the device and not the content or the context. Earlier, marketers would format online content originally published for desktops and then reconfigure those posts for mobile devices. In today’s market, however, providing an optimal experience requires a mobile-first approach.

Another drawback associated is perhaps the failure to understand the usage of the audience.

The marketing message may not be tailored to meet the needs of the audience.

Summing it Up

Eventually, it is the balance that you maintain between creating relevant and useful content and yet designing it for mobile devices, that is going to pave the way for the best kind of mobile content marketing. As Jeff Rohrs, Head of the Marketing Research & Education Group, ExactTarget so intelligently remarks, “I think the first thing they need to know is how their customers and prospects use mobile devices. Don’t build your mobile content strategy in a vacuum of what you think consumers want — build it upon what you know they need and will use.”

So set out and enter this fast-changing digital age with a will to learn and with the pace that is demanded of you. The importance of mobile content marketing is going to grow way too much in the near future for any business to possibly ignore it. It is only by keeping up with the times that we can work wonders with our businesses and achieve those goals that we have set for ourselves.